HUNTING ADVENTURES

Find All you need to know for a successful hunting trip in
South africa...

About

Jim Hackiewicz

Why Choose Hunting Adventures?

Over the last 21 seasons, I have arranged safari's for over 450 visitors from the USA, Argentina, United Arab Emirates and many other places from around the world. I'm proud to offer a very custom tailored experience to each person based upon what they can afford and what they want to do. I have the best photo safari arrangements in the business offering a staff of very talented tour guides. For hunting, I doubt you can find a better lodge or hunting concession, I also doubt you will find a more attentive staff.

My hunting experience began with my dad, hunting pheasants and squirrels when I was eight years old. He let me carry a shotgun with an empty chamber when I was 10. I continued hunting with him all through school. I also ran a very successful trap line while in high school, during which time I attended a taxidermy school to learn the taxidermy trade.
When I finished with the taxidermy school I was employed as a taxidermist and an upland bird hunting guide on a private hunting reserve. On that hunting preserve I was also responsible for animal damage control. With all the pheasants and other game birds, there seemed to be an endless supply of predators that needed to be kept in check.
I moved to Washington state in 1980 and met a friend who had a guiding business in SE Alaska, where I worked as an assistant hunting guide for him seasonally from 1980 until 1996. When I wasn't working during the spring hunts in Alaska, I was the wildlife damage control manager for the Weyerhauser company in Snoqualmie, Washington. My main responsibilities were managing the numerous black bear in the area. During the years from 1985 through 1990 I had a very successful hound hunting business and also took as many as 40 hunters a year for bear over bait in Washington state.

I made my first trip to Africa on a business trip in the early 1990's. Although I didn't have a chance to hunt during that trip, I decided to go back shortly after that first trip. I had met a number of locals who were able to help me with many of my plans. I began hunting in South Africa every year and arranged groups to hunt with my friends there. I was actually unconsciously deciding to leave the whole Alaska business behind and just run a safari business in Africa.
I learned the language (Afrikaans) over the years living there. I then attended the Professional Hunters Academy in South Africa. That school is bilingual mandatory and was a real test of my language skills to sit through the lectures in Afrikaans, and take written tests in Afrikaans. I ended up graduating 3rd in my class and earned the Professional Hunters certification needed to become a licensed PH in South Africa.

As you can see I have been involved in hunting from the time I was a very young. Through my experience over the past 21 seasons in South Africa, I have learned every aspect of this business from the travel, lodge management, hunting, skinning, trophy shipping, import export and taxidermy. I don't have an office staff to assist me with the schedules and arrangements, I do everything myself to help ensure that you have as perfect a trip as possible.
I will personally talk with you and set up your trip exactly as you want it. Our operation has limited openings for hunting in May, June and limited firearm and archery in July. Since our game is wild born and indigenous we do not hunt during the months the babies are born. Although Special arrangements can be made to a very limited degree.

Main hunt Information
services, pricing, etc...

Services

Read about what makes us the best...

about our operation

We have always tried to cater to the average working class person wanting a true hunting experience for wild-born, naturally occurring game. We also like to make it as easy as possible for families wishing to have a great experience touring the world famous parks in South Africa. Our properties are in excess of 100,000 huntable acres of land with 28 species of game and plenty of birds to hunt. This is also a malaria free area. From May through August insects and snakes are very few. These are the winter months in South Africa with the temperature getting into the low 90‘s for a high and down to the upper 30‘s for the low each night. The majority of rain is over but the odd downpour can occur anytime.

We also have big game species not normally hunted, but with some availability to harvest a surplus animal. This depends upon the populations at any given time. We have many white rhino, giraffe, sable, tsessabe, leopard, hyena, Cape Buffalo, and plenty of common species like the wildebeest, kudu, warthog and impala. We fly over the concession on a regular basis for population analysis to determine huntable amounts of game. We don‘t stock game for hunting purposes, although some introductions occur from time to time for improved bloodlines and genetics. Our game is wild born and live their entire life on the property. This is not a put and take style of hunt or a "canned hunt". These are wild, free roaming animals with more property than the natural home range would be. All of our animals are naturally occurring and indigenous to the area as well. Nothing from outside the natural habitat of the Northern Province is stocked for hunting.

Our Lodge

Our lodge and accommodations just keep getting better. It gets improved each year with upgrades to kitchen equipment and better and more comfortable rooms. We have five guest rooms each with private bath. We can now house 10 people in the main lodge comfortably. We have a full time cook, maids, and a lodge staff that will spoil you in every possible way. The guest rooms are made up every day, laundry is also done every day, and the meals are excellent. Nobody goes home weighing less then when they arrived!

We often have an outdoor barbecue for the evening meal. These are known as a "braai" in Afrikaans, and will include sausages, game meat, local fish, or wild fowl on the "braai" several times during your stay. These meals are also served with a full selection of salads, vegetables, and breads.

Sitting outside by the big fire most evenings and talking about the days adventures, is usually the highlight of the trip. I‘m always anxious to hear the delight in my hunters voices and the satisfaction they have had hunting with us. The evening visits around the fire really tops-off the perfect hunting day.

Our Lodge is certainly on one of the best sections of property in Southern Africa. It is well known as one of the premier hunting operations in all of southern Africa, for plains game and some dangerous game hunting. Our game management shows right away, you will see more and bigger kudu, on average, than any place else I know of. Even other safari companies speak highly of our kudu population and the size of the kudu we take.

We had one particular group of 7 hunters take 9 kudu in 10 days. The smallest was 48" the biggest was 58" and only one was under 50"! That is a lot of big kudu. We had days afield where we were seeing 5-6 shootable bulls in an evening, per hunter! These may have been shootable in size but may have been difficult to take a shot at. These kudu are a very wild animals and don‘t give you a lot of time to decide. They rarely give you a second chance if you hesitate in your decision.

What We Include

Our hunting packages are the best, most affordable way to have a first time safari in Africa. As an American, I have a very good idea what Americans want in a first time safari. For starters, they don‘t want surprises with additional costs. They want to know up front what they are getting for the hard earned money they are spending. I‘m proud to say we include everything you need on this trip, and I mean everything! What is not included will be no surprise to anyone. We do not include tips, personal spending money, or the shipment of your trophies to you after the hunt. We cannot possibly include a cost for something we don’t know. Many hunters do not bring any trophies back with them. Many only bring back a couple. The destinations are all different. So the trophy handling is done by others and at a cost that we have nothing to do with. I have a recommended "pack and dip" business to handle this for you. The email contact is listed in the links section of this site. The pack and dip we use has been doing my trophies for many years. They are very dependable, quick, and as affordable as anyone I have found to do this work.

We handle all costs from the moment you are picked up at the airport and taken to the beautiful Lodge until the hunt is over and you are returned to the airport on the last day. All transportation, meals, drinks, skinners, maids, cook, Professional Hunters and every normal service you can think of we provide for you while you are staying with us.

Our Hunting Style

Our hunting is done in several ways depending upon the abilities of the hunter and the species of game they are after. However first we need to talk about how you will be hunting. 1x1 or 2x1 what does that mean? 1x1 means one hunter and one Professional Hunter. This is the ultimate experience for the guy who wants to have the trip to himself. He and his "PH" will be able to go off and do what they like every day, anyway they choose! The hunter can be quite picky about the trophies and never has to worry about long tracking days or blowing a day long stalk. This is the ultimate safari hunting experience.

The 2x1 is much more affordable and can be as productive as 1x1, if both hunters are good shots and work as a team. It also allows one person to run a video camera while the other is shooting. Something you cannot do in a 1x1 hunt. The Professional Hunter will not be running a video camera when the hunter is shooting. The down side to 2x1 is that many times a stalk will be very noisy and the additional hunter is just too loud to have on a stalk. Many times one of the hunters will wait near the road or on the truck while the PH and the hunting client head into the bush for an attempt at getting the game.

You need to decide for yourself which type of hunt you prefer. Remember that the decision needs to be made when you book the hunt, NOT when you arrive on site. There may not be enough PH’s on site to have an additional 1x1 available. Deciding this when you book the hunt also allows us the time to arrange for the best PH’s in the business to take you out. We have access to the best PH’s in South Africa when you book early enough. The most sought after PH’s will be booked for the season by the late fall or winter of the previous year. We must book them to work for us as early as possible. This requires some risk on our part to have them paid for before we have the season fully booked.

Hunting 2x1 is always a good idea when you are hunting with a friend, wife, or child who is also hunting. This allows you to share your African hunting experience with someone you‘re close to. I prefer hunting with friends for many species, yet I also prefer hunting alone for many as well. Our hunt packages are based on full camps and group rates. When we do this we often times have an extra PH in the camp to assist with anyone who is falling behind and needs an extra day of 1x1 hunting to get caught up with his trophy‘s This is not to be expected, but it’s a service we provide when possible at no extra charge. Odds are that if your struggling to get the game you want we will dedicate a PH to you for a day or two of hunting. In most cases you will be hunting 2x1 for the whole trip, or 1x1 depending upon how you originally booked the trip.

Non-hunters are welcome. We have observers on nearly every group safari we do. The thing to remember is that as an observer you will be with the hunter at all times. This observer rate is not for shopping or individual sight seeing trips with other staff members while the hunter is out hunting. The observer rate covers your stay and your travel with the hunter only. Our lodge and hunting concession is too far from shopping and towns to make a trip just for sight seeing and tourist activities outside the hunting area. We can easily make sight seeing arrangements for you ahead of time, that way you can go off with a tour and return later in the week again as the observer.

We take a maximum of 24 hunters during the peak season. It is our limit for the available wild game we have and for the best part of the hunting season. We can make special arrangements for off season hunts but the May and June seasons are the best time of year to gun hunt. The impala and kudu are in the rut during parts of May and June. We prefer to do all our archery hunts in mid August to September. The conditions are far better for archery later in the year. The very dry winter months reduce the available water and concentrate game near our high hides, which are located by small ponds or lakes where archery hunters can get within range of most species.

pricing

Rifle Hunting Package

The hunt package will consist of 7 full days and 3 animals. This basic package will be $5,400.00 USD complete, which includes everything but airfare, taxidermy and preparation of and shipping of trophies. This is a 2x1 rate. If you desire to hunt 1x1 the rate will be $5,700.00. It seems these 3 animals are on just about every hunter's wish list. We also offer a trophy fee list that the hunter can choose exactly what he wants to hunt for and pay daily fee for the days of the hunt.

Your trophies will be perfectly skinned and salted by us. From there you can decide what you want to do with the trophies. You can choose any Dip Pack, or Taxidermy business you wish to further process them. Our local taxidermy has been doing this work for our hunters for many years now, promptly and without a single complaint. They will come to the camp your last day and pick up all your trophies, or you can choose your own taxidermy business to come collect them for you.

The prime dates for hunting are May 15 through the end of June, as this is the peak of the rutting season. We are typically sold out before November first each year. We have only a limited amount of hunting space, as we hunt natural wild game, not put and take or stocked animals.

The package is for 9 total days, 7 full days of hunting. The day you arrive is travel to the camp and the day you leave is travel to the airport. You will be able to hunt the half days of arrival and departure if needed, and depending upon the flight schedules you have. You will typically arrive early enough in the day to sight in your rifles and take a drive through the bush for a couple hours hunting before it gets dark. This is actually the best time of the day for hunting. Daylight begins about 6:00am and it's too dark to shoot by about 6:00pm during our peak hunting seasons of May through July. The day you depart will include a stop along the way for curios at some nice shops. The 7 days are full hunting days from first light until to dark to shoot, or even later if you choose. The meals are all included, as are all soft drinks wine and beer. We will make a stop at the bottle store so that you can buy any hard liquor that you may wish to have during the trip.

We prefer to cater to small groups, with 4-6 hunters in camp maximum. We also like to have 4 as a minimum. If you have a group of four people or more I will secure the entire 7 day period for your group alone. The non-hunting visitors will be $1,400.00 USD for the 9 days at the lodge.

Driving round trip to the airport to pick up one or two hunters is not practical therefore it cannot be charged the same as a package rate. There will be an additional charge for individual airport pickup or drop off when not on a scheduled group arrival or departure date. There is sometimes a possible delay leaving the airport when hunters from different flights arrive on the same day. Often they are an hour or so apart. We must wait to get all the hunters before we return back to the camp. It's a 4 hour drive each way.

Another issue that has come up for the Safari business in 2006 was the elimination of most morning arrival times. With most flights now arriving in the late afternoon or early evening It is a good option to stay in a hotel the day you arrive and depart for the lodge early the following morning. This gets you that extra ½ day evening hunt when you arrive in the afternoon.

I'm trying to think of all the things you should know about. I try to treat this for you folks as if I were planning this major event for myself.

Deposits are $2,500.00 USD and are 100% refundable until January 1.

The Game:

1 Kudu

1 Impala

1 Warthog

Bow Hunting Special

Archery group hunt culling special. Four or more hunters in camp at one time. $4300 all inclusive. The package will consist of 7 full days; 9 total days with a day on each end for travel. This is a 2x1 rate. If you desire to hunt 1x1, add $500.00.

You must add airfare, tips, alcohol, and trophy shipping and processing. $1,300 for a non-hunting companion. Double occupancy rooms.

The Game:

3 female Impala

1 cow Kudu

1 cow Wildebeest

1 non-trophy Warthog

1 Jackal

1 Vervet Monkey

Unlimited Guinea Fowl

*Additional female animals available at special culling price levels. All other game at published trophy fees.

More on Pricing and Trophy...

We can also offer a daily fee and trophy fee list if you prefer. The 1x1 daily fee is $275.00 USD per day and the 2x1 daily fee is $225.00 USD per day. We will also reduce the 1x1 hunt price to $240.00 USD per day for a 1x1 hunter with a non-hunter.

We can hunt many other species if you want; for something not on this list, let me know. These are the most common species hunted. Springbok and black wildebeest require moving to their indigenous habitat which will be a day of travel each way. We only hunt natural wild game which is indigenous to the areas we hunt. We do not operate a put and take style of hunting.

There are some new regulations regarding many smaller varmint species which we used to hunt as targets of opportunity. Some of these species require special permits now. Animals like Jackal, Civet cat, baboon, Vervet monkey, Serval, Caracal cat, etc. These animals must have a prepaid permit form Nature Conservation. We will offer hunting for all these species so long as you pay for the nonrefundable permit and trophy fee. These species require full and non-refundable trophy fees prior to your arrival in RSA. If it's something you wish to hunt we will hunt them and are usually very successful getting them. However the Country of RSA requires permits now that go beyond the price control of the South African outfitters.

Typically the permit cost per animal is about $50 USD and the trophy fee will be about $150-300 depending upon the species and the difficulty or effort to locate them.